Printing apparatus



7 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed March 25. 1964 lmmmmmmw a Q w r MA w WIN A Home y March 29, 1966 HARTA 3,242,853

PRINTING APPARATUS Filed March 25, 1964 7 Sheets-Sheet 3 Attorney March 29, 1966 l. HVARTA 3,242,853

v PRINTING APPARATUS Filed March 25, 1964 7 Sheets-Sheet s lnvegtor mma r {avia B NM Q .-L NM Attorney March 29, 1966 Filed March 25. 1964 E. I. HARTA PRINTING APPARATUS 7 Sheets-Sheet 4 A tlorney E. I. HARTA PRINTING APPARATUS March 29, 1966 '7 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed March 25. 1964 '7 Sheets-Sheet 6 Filed March 25, 1964 &

March 29, 1966 E. l. HARTA 7 3,

PRINTING APPARATUS Filed March 25. 1964 '7 Sheets-Sheet 7 Inventor E mm in] H ft By NM? 1 N 01% A Home y United States Patent 3,242,853 PRINTING APPARATUS Emmery I. Harta, Enfield, England, assignor to English Numbering Machines Limited, Enfield, England, a British company Filed Mar. 25, 1964, Ser. No. 354,605 Claims priority, application Great Britain, Mar. 27, 1963, 12,107/ 63 12 Claims. (Cl. 10191) The invention relates to printing apparatus, and is an improvement in or modification of the invention disclosed in my co-pending patent application Serial No. 271,752, filed April 9, 1963, now Patent No. 3,142,250.

- Documents, for example cheques, are sometimes evaluated by automatic equipment and in such cases they are provided, in addition to any normally readable information, with information which is in a form able to be sensed by the automatic equipment and thus evaluated.

It is an object of the invention to provide improved means for printing the desired information in configurations distinguishable by the sensing equipment, the printing being effected in ordinary printing ink in the case of sensing equipment operating photo-electrically or in magnetic ink in the case of sensing equipment operating magnetically.

It is another object of the invention to provide means for the information to be printed on the document in a predetermined position so that no alterations in the sensing equipment need be made from one document to the other and so that any information printed will be in linear register with any basic information already printed on the document.

In our said co-pending patent application, we have disclosed a printing apparatus comprising a pair of cooperating printing rollers arranged for being driven at the same peripheral speed, one of the rollers carrying a settable printing wheel having a plurality of direct-reading printing formations, any printing formation to which the printing wheel has been set lying substantially in register with the periphery of said one roller, the other roller carrying an inking mechanism for holding an inking means so as to extend over a peripheral portion of the said other roller, the rollers being so coordinated that the inking means on the said peripheral portion is brought into register With the set printing formation once during each revolution of the rollers, means being provided for guiding sheets to be printed on to the bite between the rollers whereby printing of the sheets is effected by their being pressed against the inking means by the set printing formation of the printing wheel. The fact that the inking mechanism, for example having a printing ribbon, is carried by the roller, makes the ribbon accessible only with difficulty, and an appreciable amount of time is wasted when replacing a used ribbon by an unused one.

Accordingly it is a further object of the present invention, to provide a printing apparatus in which the inking ribbon is easily accessible and replacing a used ribbon by an unused ribbon is facilitated.

It is yet another object of the invention, to provide for the amount of inking ribbon which can be carried by the said other roller to be increased, so that frequent ribbon changes are not required.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention will become clear to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of some embodiments of the invention, reference being made to the accompanying drawings which are given by way of example and in which:

FIG. 1 is a partly sectioned plan view of an apparatus for printing information from a plurality of settable number-printing wheels, onto cheques;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary longitudinal sectional view of the apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view along the line III-III of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view along the line IV-IV of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view along the line VV of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a sectional view along the line VIVI of FIG. 3;

FIG. 7 is a sectional view along the line VII--VII of FIG. 3;

FIG. 8 is a sectional view along the line VIIIVIII of FIG. 2;

FIG. 9 is a sectional view, corresponding to FIG. 8, showing the printing elements in a different position;

FIG. 10 is a sectional view, corresponding to FIG. 9 showing a modified form of the printing elements; and

FIG. 11 is a perspective view of a modified detail of the apparatus.

The apparatus of the present invention comprises a housing 1 in which two cooperating printing elements 2 and 3 are rotatably mounted. Arrangements for guiding cheques to the region between the printing elements are provided, these arrangements being similar to those described in the specification of Patent No. 3,142,250 referred to hereinbefore.

The printing element 2 has two flange-like end plates 4 and 5 between which extend four metal pressure bars 6 (see FIGS. 2 and 8) having a facing 7 of elastomeric material such as the material known under the registered trade mark Vulcollan. The bars 6 are so mounted that on rotation of the end plates 4 and 5 the elastomeric facings 7 trace a cylindrical envelope, and the facings 7 are ground or otherwise finished to the diameter of the said cylinder envelope. For convenience of description, the end plates 4 and 5 and bars 6 will be hereinafter referred to as a pressure drum, although it is to be understood that the drum 2 formed thereby does not have a closed periphery.

The pressure drum 2 has stub formations 8 on its end plates, which engage bearings 9 in a frame 11 which is slidable in the housing 1 of the apparatus. The end plates 4 and 5 have annular bearing surfaces 12 which engage in annularly recessed bearings 13 provided in the frame 11.

The printing element 3 for convenience also called printing wheel drum 3 has end plates 14 and 15 and is mounted by a fixed spindle 16, which engages bores in stub formations 17 of the end plates 14 and 15, in the housing 1 of the apparatus. The end plates 14 and 15 have annular bearing surfaces 21 which engage in annularly recessed bearings 22 provided in the housing 1. The printing wheel drum 3 comprises a cylindrical shell 23 which has a peripheral opening 24 extending along its entire length. A series of printing wheels 25 are mounted within the shell 23 on a shaft 26 which extends between the end plates 14 and 15 so that printing formations 27 on the printing wheels 25 extend into the shell opening 24 and lie in the periphery of the shell 23. The printing formations 27 which may be numerals, have face curvatures equal to the peripheral curvature of the shell 23. Each printing wheel 25 has secured thereto a toothed wheel 28 which when meshed by another, removable toothed wheel (not shown) connected to a setting mechanism, can be used for setting the printing wheel 25 to a desired printing formation thereof. The toothed wheels 28 secured to the printing wheels 25 have one tooth space for each printing formation on the printing wheels and are engaged by detent springs 29 mounted on brackets 30 in the shell 23 which provide a click-registration action for the setting of the printing wheels 25. Also mounted in the shell is'a pawl member 81 having a plurality of pawl'projections8'2, one for each toothed wheel28, the

profiles of the pawl projections 82 corresponding to the tooth-space profiles of the toothed wheels 28. The pawl member 81 is urged byla spring (not shown) into engagement with the shaft 16 on which the printing wheel drum 3is rotatable. The shaft 16' over that part of its length which is contacted by the pawl member 81, is shaped as a cam insuch' manner that by rotation of the printing wheel drum 3 the pawl member 81 by contact with the shaft 16 is acted upon whereby to cause the pawl projections 82 to be urged into positive engagement with the toothedwheels 28, thus locking-the printing wheels 25 in their setpositions.

.In' additionvto the printing wheels 25, a plurality of fixed printing slugs 83 are provided which extend across the opening. 24 of .the' printing wheel drum 3 so that printing formations which they may carry will be printed from in the same operation as the printing from the printing wheels 25.

The stub formation 1'7 of the end plate 14 of the printing. wheel drum 3 carries two cams 31 and 32, two toothed wheels 33 and 34 and a member 35 which carries a pin 36 and forms part of a pin and slot Geneva mechanism. A stub formation 3 provided on one end of the pressure drum 2 carries a toothed wheel 37 and a slotted member 38 forming part of the Geneva mechanism.

The toothed wheel 33 carried by the printing wheel stub formation 17 is permanently engaged by a driving toothed wheel 39 operable for example by a drive motor. The other toothed wheel-34' has a peripheral portion 41 thereof missing (see FIG. 4) and normally meshes with the-toothed wheel 37 carried by the stub formation 8 of the pressure drum, this toothed wheel 37 having a peripheral portion thereof missing.

The cam 31 isgenerally circular, apart from a peripheral depression 42 (see FIG. 3) and this cam 31 is engaged by a follower roller 43 provided on a bridge 44 secured to the slidable housing 11 in which the pressure drum is mounted. The housing 11 is acted onby a compression spring 45' which urges the'housing 11, and thus thei pressure drum 2 into a position relative to the printing wheel drum 3 which is determined by engagement of the follower roller 43 with the cam 31. Another, similar, cam 31 is provided on the stub formation 17 of the other end plate of the printing wheel drum SVand alsothis cam 31' is engaged by a follower roller 43 provided on a bridge v44ft secured to the slida-ble housing 11.

The depression 42 in the earns 31 against which the follower rollers 43 act are so positioned that they are engaged by the follower rollers 43' at the same time that engagement between the two meshing toothed wheels 34, 37 ceases due to the missing portions 41 thereof, this beingthe instant at which the printing formations 27 set on the printing wheels of the printing wheel drum 3 and one of .the' pressure bars 6 are moving into a posi tion for cooperating.

The cams31 which are engaged by the follower rollers 43 are so dimensioned that at all times when the depressions 42 in the cams 31 are not in register with the follower rollers '43, the slidable housing 11 is maintained in such. a position that a gap 44 is present between the printing wheel drum 3 and the pressure drum 2. A printing web in the form ofa paper ribbon 44 (see FIGS. 3, '5 and 6) having a pressure transferrable coating of magnetic ink extends through the gap between the drums 2 and 3, the ribbon 44 being taken from a sun-ply roll 45, guided over guide rollers 50 and taken up on a take-up spool 4'6 (see FIG. 7). A known friction'brake (not shown) may act against the supply roll to prevent overspi-ll of the ribbon. The take-up spool 46 is held on a removable spindle 47 which is seated in a socket formation 48' provided in a friction wheel 49 4 rotatably mounted in the frame 1 of the arrangement. The friction wheel 49 is positioned for engagement by a lobe 50 of cam 32 provided on the stub formation 17 of the end plate 14 of the printing wheel drum 3, in such manner that the friction wheel 49 is moved in a step by step manner by one step for each revolution of the printing wheel drum 3.

It will be appreciated that if a cheque is fed to the gap between the printing wheel drum 3 and the pressure drum 2 so as to be between the printing ribbon 44 and the pressure drum-2, then when the gap 49 between-the two drums is closed by the action of the spring 45 as a result of the cam depressions 42 registering with the follower rollers 43, thatis to say when the drums move from their positions shown in FIG. 8 into their positions shown in FIG. 9, the cheque'an-d the printing ribbon 44 will be moved at a linear speedequal to the peripheral speed of the drums and there will thus be no relative movement betweenthe cheque and the printing ribbon such as would cause smearing. This movement of the ribbon, equal to the. height of the type face on the printing wheels'25, constitutes the only-feed of the ribbon 44.

In order to allow the interaxial spacing of the two drums 2 and 3 to be changed by the action of the cams 31 and followers 43, the meshing toothed wheels 34, 37 as already mentioned, have missing peripheral portions 41. During the time that the depressed regions of the cams 31 are in engagement with the followers 43, the toothed wheels in question are not in mesh. In order to prevent any interruption in the drive of the pressure drum, thepin and slot Geneva mechanism 35, 36, 38 is provided, the pin 36 of the pin-carrying member 35 being in angular register with the beginningof the toothfree portion 41 of the toothed wheel 37 of the pressuredrum and the slot 51 of the slotted member 38 passing radially through the beginning of the tooth-free portion 41 of the toothed wheel 34 of the printing wheel drum plates 63 which extend through the shell interior almost to the wall of the shell opposite to the opening, where they are united by a bridge member 64 extending generally parallel to the pressure pad 62'. The bridge member 64. is acted on by an elongated leaf spring arrangement' 65 of V-shaped section which urges'the pad 62' into a position wherein it projects from the surface of the shell 61. Abutments 66 inside the shell cooperate with abutments 67 on the pad supporting plates'63 to limit the projecting position of the pad 62, the abutment arrangement and the leaf spring arrangement allowing the pad to resiliently yield to pressure exerted on its peripheral surface. 3

In a further modification, shown in FIG. 11, instead of pressure bars 6 havingelastomeric facings 7,.pressure bars 71 are used which have rigid facings. 72. Spring members 73 having a plurality of tongues 7-4are screwed to the sides of each pressure bar 71, the tongues 74 engaging in openings 75 in a resilient sheet 76, for exampleof synthetic plastic material, so that the sheet 76 extendsin an arched form across the facing -72, the resistance of the sheet 72 to flattening of the arching providing a degree of resiliency at the operative facing of the bar.

The apparatus described above is intended for printing onto cheques. Of course, other sheet material may be printed, for example paper in the form of a continuous web.

It should be clearly understood that the embodiments described are given by way of example only. Many modifications, additions and omissions may be made without departing from the spirit of this invention.

I claim:

1. A printing apparatus comprising a first rotatable printing element, a second rotatable printing element, toothed wheels meshing with each other and arranged and adapted for rotating said printing elements at the same peripheral speed, at least one printing Wheel on said first printing element, a plurality of printing formations on said printing wheel, said printing wheel being settable for selecting one of said printing formations for printing, the selected printing formation lying substantially in register with the periphery of said first printing element, a pressure member on said second printing element, the axes of rotation of said printing elements being substantially parallel to each other and being spaced for providing a gap between the envelopes of rotation of said printing elements, means for carrying a printing web passing through said gap, means for changing the interaxial spacing of said printing elements to close said gap at a predetermined relative position of said printing wheel and said pressure member, said toothed wheels having tooth-free gaps positioned to register with each other when said printing wheel and said pressure member are in said predetermined relative position to allow changing of said interaxial spacing of said printing elements, and means for continuing the rotation of said printing elements during the period when said tooth-free gaps register With each other.

2. A printing apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein said means for continuing the rotation of said printing elements comprise a pin-and-slot Geneva mechanism, a slotted member on said Geneva mechanism, said slotted member being rotatable with one of said printing elements, a pin, and a member carrying said pin, said pincarrying member forming part of said Geneva mechanism and being rotatable with the other one of said printing elements, the said slotted and pin-carrying members being arranged for said pin to engage a slot of said slotted member at the instant of disengagement of said toothed wheels and to disengage said slot at the instant of re-engagement of said toothed wheels.

3. A printing apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein said means for changing the interaxial spacing of said printing elements comprise a cam rotatable with one of said printing elements, slidably mounted means for carrying the other one of said printing elements, a follower for cooperation with said cam, said follower being mounted on said carrying means, spring means acting on said carrying means for urging said other printing element towards said one printing element to an extent limited by engagement of said cam by said follower.

4. A printing apparatus as defined in claim 3, and further comprising a housing for said carrying means, end flanges of said other printing element, annular bearings for said end flanges, said annular bearings being provided on said housing, and slide guides for slidably mounting said housing.

'5. A printing apparatus as defined in claim 1, and further comprising at least one additional pressure member on said second printing element.

6. A printing apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein said pressure member is of bar-like shape.

'7. A printing apparatus as defined in claim 6, wherein said pressure member comprises a metal bar, and a layer of elastomeric material, said layer being provided on a working edge face of said metal bar.

8. A printing apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein said pressure member is in the form of a pressure pad, said second printing element being in the shape of a roller, said pressure pad being resiliently mounted in said roller and extending from the periphery thereof.

9. A printing apparatus as defined in claim 1, and further comprising a supply reel of printing web, means for mounting said supply reel in a position relative to said printing elements so that said printing web freely extends through said gap between said printing elements, and a take-up mechanism for taking up used printing web fed by successive engagements between said pressure member and said printing formations.

It). A printing apparatus as defined in claim 9, wherein said take-up mechanism comprises a take-up spool, a friction wheel formed as a socket for receiving said takeup spool, and means for rotating said friction wheel in a step-by-step movement for rotating said take-up spool.

11. A printing apparatus as defined in claim 1th, wherein said rotating means comprise a rotatable cam arranged for engaging said friction wheel once per revolution.

12. A printing apparatus comprising a first rotatable printing element, a second rotatable printing element, means for rotating said printing elements at the same peripheral speed, at least one printing wheel on said first printing element, a plurality of printing formations on said printing wheel, said printing wheel being settable for selecting one of said printing formations for printing, the selected printing formation lying substantially in register with the periphery of said first printing element, a pressure member on said second printing element, the axes of rotation of said printing elements being substan tially parallel to each other and being spaced for providing a gap between the envelopes of rotation of said printing elements, means for carrying a printing web passing through said gap, means for changing the interaxial spacing of said printing elements to close said gap at a predetermined relative position of said printing wheel and said pressure member, said pressure member including a bar, a cover of resilient sheet material, and means retaining said cover over an operative face of said bar, said cover being arched over said face, the resistance of said arched cover to flattening providing a degree of resiliency at said operative face.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,287,610 12/1918 Barbieri et al. 101-243 X 2,173,454 9/1939 Muller 101243 X 2,232,424 2/1941 Baker et al 10191 2,248,419 7/1941 Auld 10l-244 X 2,714,268 8/1955 Battey 101-244 2,753,791 7/1956 Thurmann 101-9l 3,037,447 6/ 1962 Gonzales et al 10191 ROBERT E. PULFREY, Primary Examiner.

WILLIAM B. PENN, Examiner.

NATHANIEL HUMPHRIES, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A PRINTING APPARATUS COMPRISING A FIRST ROTATABLE PRINTING ELEMENT, A SECOND ROTATABLE PRINTING ELEMENTS, TOOTHED WHEELS MESHING WITH EACH OTHER AND ARRANGED AND ADAPTED FOR ROTATING SAID PRINTING ELEMENTS AT THE SAME PERIPHERAL SPEED, AT LEAST ONE PRINTING WHEEL ON SAID FIRST PRINTING ELEMENT, A PLURALITY OF PRINTING FORMATIONS ON SAID PRINTING WHEEL, SAID PRINTING WHEEL BEING SETTABLE FOR SELECTING ONE OF SAID PRINTING FORMATION FOR PRINTING, THE SELECTED PRINTING FORMATION LYING SUBSTANTIALLY IN REGISTER WITH THE PERIPHERY OF SAID FIRST PRINTING ELEMENT, A PRESSURE MEMBER ON SAID SECOND PRINTING ELEMENT, THE AXES OF ROTATION OF SAID PRINTING ELEMENTS BEING SUBSTANTIALLY PARALLEL TO EACH OTHER AND BEING SPACED FOR PROVIDING A GAP BETWEEN THE ENVELOPES OF ROTATION OF SAID 